Jasmyne Cannick: Abercombie and Fitch’s ‘fat policy’ is a good thing

*What retailer Abercrombie and Fitch is doing with its “fat policy” is what I wish the person behind the counter at McDonald’s would do to me whenever I show up and ask for a No. 3—tell me no, you’re too fat.

Now while I don’t subscribe to the idea that skinny equates to beauty, the reality of the situation with Abercrombie and Fitch is that they have every right to not want fat people wearing their brand of clothing—and fat people who dig Abercrombie and Fitch’s style of clothing, have every right to lose the weight, walk into their store, and buy their clothes.

Protesting Abercrombie and Fitch is sending the message to children, teens, and adults that it’s okay to be fat and if people don’t accept you being fat and make clothes to accommodate your fatness that they are somehow bad.

As one of the 35.7 percent of U.S. adults who are considered obese, at 5’6” and 195 pounds, I could easily join the chorus of those upset over the retailer’s exclusion of anyone bigger than a size large, but the energy I’d invest would be better spent on taking a hike, playing a set of tennis, or hitting the gym.

Unlike your gender or race, being overweight is a choice that people make. A choice identical to the one that millions of Americans make everyday when they light up a cigarette knowing (now) that it’s likely to lead to cancer. Obesity is likely to lead to diabetes, heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and yes—your inability to shop at Abercombie and Fitch.

The blame could be pointed at the proliferation of fast food restaurants in urban inner-city neighborhoods where the cost of buying groceries is so high that it’s cheaper to get a bucket of friend chicken. We could attribute it to the lack of parks and affordable gyms or how obesity and diabetes are passed down in generations of families like great-great-grandma’s recipe for macaroni and cheese. But the reality is that while those are all contributing influences, they are not the determining factor in one’s being overweight—we are.

I know because I struggle with myself every time I supersize an order of fries or go back for a second helping sweet potatoes and macaroni and cheese. But what I don’t do is blame someone else for my being unable to make healthier choices.

In 2007, I was 30 years old, weighed close to 240 pounds, and wore a size 22. If it weren’t for stretch pants and retailers Ashley Stewart and Lane Bryant I don’t know what I would have done for clothes.

I was miserable. Not just because years of carrying around all of that weight was hard on my body and health, but because I did have a real desire to try out some of the fashion trends and cuter clothing that I admired thinner women wearing.

So I finally got up off of my fat ass (literally) and said enough is enough and by the end of that same year, I had lost 80 pounds resulting in my wearing a size 10.

I will never forget the feeling that I had the first time I walked into H&M and Victoria Secret and realized I could fit their clothes. Epic.

But that was a choice that I made.

A choice to get up every morning and walk. A choice to leave the cookies and the cakes alone. A choice to pick up a tennis racket and learn a new sport at 30. A choice to drive past all of the fast food restaurants and go home and cook my meals. A choice to take control of my life.

The U.S. government contradicts itself all of the time on the issue of obesity. On the one hand millions are being spent to encourage Americans to lose the weight and eat healthy and with the other hand they are endorsing the opening of thousands of fast food restaurants that are selling the very same food they are warning us to stay away from. And in the end what’s left is literally a fast-food nation where more than a third of the population is obese, with the number climbing every year and healthcare costs in the trillions of dollars.

My goal is not to bash overweight and obese people, because I am one. We have to take responsibility for our own eating and exercise habits—and not fault stores for not catering to our fatness. For every store that doesn’t carry anything over a size 10 or 12, there are plenty of stores that do. I think you’d agree that most folks who are obese are not walking around naked.

Our greatest strength as a country is our freedom and our right if we so do choose—to use that freedom to eat ourselves into an early grave or at the very least the inability to wear anything that doesn’t stretch.

Jasmyne A. Cannick

Chosen as one of Essence Magazine’s 25 Women Shaping the World, Jasmyne Cannick is a native of Los Angeles and writes about the intersection of race, politics, and pop culture. Online at www.JasmyneOnline.com. Follow her on Twitter@jasmyne and @myfatdiary, and on Facebook at/jasmyne.

This is the dumbest load of crap I’ve ever heard. This is what’s wrong with our society. There is NOTHING wrong with being overweight. The idiots who think there is a problem are th ones who contribute to kids developing eating disorders not in them wanting to “lose weight the healthy way.” A&F and everyone who supports this idiotic view is body shaming people who don’t have their ideal body types and saying that skinny does equal beauty. Educate yourselves people and realize that the size of your pants doesn’t define you be whatever size you want! And don’t let the ignorant ones tell you otherwise.

Did this person really write this? Yes obviously people in America have a thing called ‘freedom’. So if a company wants to only make certain sizes they totally can. BUT you sound so inconsiderate when you say people have choices about their weight and if they want to wear the clothes then lose the weight. Some people have a much harder time with weight issues. And the the people who have big weight problems ussually have a deeper rooted problem. The LAST thing they need to to feel even more excluded from what is considered ‘cool’ or ‘normal’ weight. Let the doctors tell them they need to lose the pounds.

It is not the stores fault or anyones fault that someone has weight loss issues sooo who cares! Point is most people can control their weight, and it decision to do so. If they can’t fit into A&F’s highest fitting size yes I am sorry but they are over weight! I know cause I work there! Torrid doesn’t sell clothes to skinny people am I complaining?! No!

You do realize that there’s a different from selling clothes only for certain size people and telling them that they are “not-so-cool” if they are not that size, right? Torrid doesn’t sell clothes to skinny people, because they are a specialty retailer, not because they don’t want their brand sullied by being seen on skinny people. This comment is pretty ignorant of the real issues here.

This is one of the most insensitive articles I’ve ever read. First of all I’m not overweight I can shop anywhere. I also believe that Every person that is overweight and by choice. People have issues that caused them to pad on the pounds. Some physical some mental. Nobody chooses to have high blood pressure and diabetes or other problems that come with obesity or overweight. Some people have more difficulties to quit smoking or overheating. Because you did or can do it doesn’t mean if that’s easy for everyone else. Anorexia and other disorders are just as dangerous as over eating. The bottom line is don’t shop at the store! Give money to somebody that caters to your needs.

“being overweight is a choice that people make”…….Jasmyne that’s not true and you know it! And for the record I’m NOT overweight. To say it’s a choice to be overweight is just wrong. There are plenty of stores and brands that don’t sale Plus sizes.

This is America and companies can target whatever market they desire. Whether its insensitive or not, it’s their right. Remember Monique once thought it was great being a fat ass and now she’s a size 6.

The choice rests with the consumer. A&F has made it clear who they prefer as customers from their ads. As have many other retailers who target to, let’s say, a rich, thin, young white marketing base. Yet, folks who in no way fit this elitist profile flock to these stores and flush away their money. Go figure!

No she wasn’t. She was too fat. That’s why her diagnosis was bad. Her bones are just as big now as they were then. You don’t lose weight in your bones. She lost fat. All those years of denial caught up with her.

First of all, I applaud the bravery of this article. Kudos to you for taking responsibility for your health and wellness and working to achieve better health, hopefully through a good diet and exercise. Because that’s what it should be about… not being ‘cool’ or ‘pretty,’ since those are relative terms- and in an ideal world would be based on the quality of character- but on being healthy. Remember America, it’s better to be a fit, ‘fat’ person who eats salads than a sedentary skinny person who exists on soda and pizza.

I think the point that everyone is missing in this whole debate is that this is a clothing store for *children.* This is not Sears or JC Penny, this is a company that targets teens and pre-teens. Children already face an enormous amount of bullying every day, and to have a company endorse that sort of behavior is just appalling. Young girls in particular feel an overwhelming strain to conform to our society’s rigid standards of beauty, regardless of whether those standards are attainable for them. Many of these girls do not have access to a gym or healthy food, or are battling the hefty gifts of genetics or medical problems such as depression or hypothyroidism or PCOS. Many of these girls need extra help to attain a healthy weight, and in their desperation to ‘belong,’ they adopt drastic and sometimes fatal methods.

A&F is not out to make America a healthier country. Their intentions are not pure. They believe that by being exclusionary, they will boost their sales to the ‘pretty’ people. But I believe it’s going to blow up in their faces… because nobody likes a bully.

I appreciate the courage it took to express a different opinion in this instance and I agree with some of the things the author said. It is A & Fs right to cater to a very specific demographic. I honestly don’t see anything wrong with that. When I was pregnant, I couldn’t shop at a lot of places, but I can’t shop where I shopped then now that I had my son. I can also see how, as someone who has struggled to loose weight and done so, the author would feel like discouraging A & F from continuing those practices is encouraging individuals to believe there is nothing wrong with being over weight.

However, I also believe the author has missed a few details in her conclusion. For instance, it is my observation that much of the outcry has less to do with the store not offering sizes bigger than a large and more to do with the insensitive attitude that the store has about it. I, for one, do not use what sizes a store sells to determine where I shop as long as said store sells my size, but I do have a problem shopping at a store that is vocal about its belief that the people who can wear their clothes are somehow more valuable than those who cannot.

The author is right that being obese is not healthy. I applaud those who have determined with proper medical advice that they will be healthier with less body fat and set about to lose it. I am happy for them when they succeed in losing weight healthily. I also believe that it is good to express concern to those we care about if we see something they are doing that is not healthy, including having too much body fat. However, we should only do so if we feel we have a relationship where it would be appropriate and only under the right circumstances. We do not need to tell people they will be better loved if they do lose weight. That helps create an environment for self-loathing and eating disorders.

I wouldn’t go so far as the author and say that people choose to be over weight, but there are choices involved in obesity. There are choices in general that are better than other choices, whether with weight loss or anything else. It is not bad to encourage good choices, but it is bad to tell someone who is different than you (be the differences the result of bad or different choices or be they just an innate difference), that they have less value as a person than those who are like you.

I whole-heartedly support A & F’s right to do what they are doing and even to say what they have said. I also claim my right to find it a despicable, degrading statement. Thus, I also claim my right to never shop there.

On a slightly unrelated note, I also find it slightly ironic that the author criticizes “fault[ing] stores for not catering to our fatness” just after faulting fast food for making us fat. As the author said “we have to take responsibility for our own eating and exercise habits.” It isn’t fast food’s fault.

If those clothes were made here in America, then we’d be saying something BUT they’re made in the same damn poor as countries that use cheap cotton, cheap labor and the only people you seeing wearing that crap is skinny ass white girls and fags…have you ever seen one of their t-shirts after a few washes??? PULEASE…

Excellent article Jas…just excellent. Coming from a family of obese folk, I made the CHOICE not to subject myself to their bad eating habits. That’s why I’m nowhere near fat now. I don’t eat the fast food. I know how to not eat 5 plates of food during holiday’s. I know how to prepare my own salad w/some some apples, dried cranberries, grapes, chicken etc and use that as an actual main dish but not the sides.

I can shop @AF but don’t like their clothes neway.

Choices! And it’s quite refreshing seeing Jas be so upfront about her own struggles. Congrats!

Oh dear. All you can tell by looking at someone’s size is what size they are. Nothing about what, when or how they eat, exercise or anything about their health. How about we make sure people have access to good, affordable food and exercise opportunities if and when they want to use them and how about we make sure everyone can find clothes they like that fit them and that they can afford?

Yes A&F can choose to make clothes for whoever but then I get to choose what I think of that policy. What I think about that is they are shaming people for being who they are and that’s not OK. I wouldn’t shop there now if you paid me.

Jasmyne, just because you would like to abdicate responsibility for your choices to others around you in no way means that it’s OK that you suggest others do so. My body, my life, my health, my choices. It’s nobody else’s responsibility to police what you choose to eat at McDonald’s. Equally, it’s not your responsibility to police the choices that anyone else makes. Each of us is responsible for his or her own self.

Added to that is the fallacy that body size is the same as health status. It’s not. There are loads of healthy fat people and unhealthy thin people. Weight is only one small facet of an overall health picture. It’s like watching the opening scene of a movie and judging the whole movie off that one scene. It’s not best practices. This is why a doctor gets the whole picture before discussing your health with you. They cannot look at your body and just say, “Oh. Thin. Healthy! See you next year!” or “Oh. Fat. Well, you must be diabetic and hypertensive, so here, have a prescription. Take two – they’re small! See you in three months!” It just does not work that way.

Fat is a descriptor, no more no less. Let’s stop moralizing body size and start stripping away the shame and stigma. That’s the first step toward leading healthier lives. Well, that and taking responsibility for ourselves and ignoring others who think they know what’s best for us more than we do. So long as I work and pay my own bills I’ll make my own choices, thanks.

1st, you say that for every store that doesn’t sell above a 10/12 there is one that does and I beg to differ, at most I have a choice of Lane Bryant/Avenue/Ashley Stewart (if I can find one)/or the grandma section of the department stores or the Disney outlet that is Walmart which doesn’t carry pants in my size so I stopped shopping there. Even if I find something at one of these stores, lets say a pair of jeans at Lane Bryant, I am paying almost $100 for them there when at AF I could spend maybe $30 and I know there is not that much xtra material on them.
2nd, you assume (and we all know what happens when you assume) that all fat people made a conscious choice to be this way, that there were no predetermined health issues that hindered or encouraged weight gain/loss. You assume that we all just sit around watching tv and shoving copious amounts of fast food in our faces. I have been overweight my entire life, until I was maybe 13 or 14, I had been to a fast food place maybe 6 times, we didn’t eat fast food, my mom cooked home cooked meals and we ate lots of veggies and fruits. I was a typical active child, loved playing soccer and running around being a kid, I did watch tv but never owned a game system (still don’t have one) so I didn’t sit around playing video games all day (in fact, I was 20 before I ever played a video game) yet, dispite all this I was fat. I have literally been on every diet there it, I have restricted my food intake, I have exercised more, ate less and would still never lose more than 30 or 40 #, I didn’t give up after 3 months or 6 months or a year of plateau and still nothing. I am not saying that there are not people our there who do make the choice but even if they do, its their choice to make and why does someone get to justify bullying them b/c of their choice b/c they don’t like it, last time I checked this was America where we are free to make choices just like that.
3rd, I understand that your experience was that you did not feel good while you were “overweight” that is your experience, however, I am still overweight (caused by PCOS that even medicated I was unable to lose weight) and apart from my girly problems I am 100% healthy. Good cholesterol, good BP, good blood sugars, I am active and I am healthy. And, need I remind you that skinny people get diabetes too and all the other things that we all associate with obesity so we can not blame obesity for these issues. Weight does not equal unhealthy.
Now, I don’t wear AF b/c they don’t fit me but even beyond that, even if I was smaller I wouldn’t wear them b/c they are bullies. Ok, so you don’t want to sell plus size clothes, hundred of retailers don’t and that is their prerogative, as irritating as it is to some, they have a right not to do so, but to point blank say that they are not going to b/c they only want the cool kids to wear their clothes, well, why don’t we just encourage our kids to keep on picking on the gay kids, and the other kids are not considered “cool” b/c they don’t conform, maybe then (at least in the small minded heads of the people who buy into this kind of elitist crap) we will all get tired of being picked on and kill ourselves and then you won’t have to look at us any more.
Way to have a WWJD mentality there folks!

Whether or not being overweight is a choice isn’t the issue. The issue is that this is a middle aged male clothing retailer specifically telling teenage girls that their bodies aren’t good enough. It isn’t just a decision not to sell the clothes. It’s the statements he’s made. This is absolutely not a message that should come from this source. If a young woman needs to lose weight for her health, she should hear about it from her doctor.

Ms. Cannick: state A&F’s policy out loud, but substitute the word “gay” every time they use “fat” or “uncool.” Now do the same thing using the word “Black.” Fat shaming is dehumanizing to the people who have to endure it and the people who perpetuate it. Don’t do that to other people and please stop doing it to yourself. You have amazing value as a person just as you are, and so do others.

Putting aside the facts that health and weight are separate or how fixation on body size is destructive to the health of people of all sizes (and I am not just talking about eating disorders). The A&F CEO did not say anything about healthy. He said “cool kids.” How can the opinion of one man decide who is or isn’t “cool” in this world? The very idea is ridiculous and should not, by any means, be condoned. The practice of placing people in neat categories based on what they look like is something we need to evolve far, far away from.

You are completely missing the point. While everyone that I know who has their undies in a bunch because of what Mike Jefferies said about not wanting fat women shopping there, it goes beyond that. He doesn’t want unattractive or old women shopping there either, even if they could fit in his clothes…
I know a zillion people who’ve gone plus to misses clothes who won’t shop there because of his misogyny.
I’m further horrified that you think we should become a body policing country. It’s not for you to say and also ignorantly assume that all people of weight have diabetes, high cholestrol and high blood pressure. I didn’t at size 24 and I don’t as size 14, on average, sometimes smaller sometimes, bigger, has never had that as health problem. Millions of thin people do, so if you are making this about health, which you clearly are not, and you should know better then anyone what it’s like to be prejudiced against.
While you fall in the category, Jasmyne of being attractive, and congratulations for doing what millions of people have done, at least temporarily and that is keep weight off.
So if your size 10 ass wants to impress me it ain’t that it can fit into anything that Abercombie and Fitch can sell in your size. I dare you to try and impress me by being able to land a job there…. Then come back and tell us how amazing you are……….

I read an earlier post of yours, and I can see that you do have genuine concerns about things like access to affordable healthy foods and affordable physical activity. This is awesome–many people who practice Health At Every Size (self-acceptance and healthy habits regardless of weight) have a similar interest in these issues.

You have the right to buy into self-hate or shame or whatever (“I wish the person behind the counter at McD’s …(would say) “No, you’re too fat.”) if that’s what you want. I’m truly glad for you that you weight cycled your way down to a size 10. I’m sorry if, like most people who lose weight, your weight came back even if you kept your good habits.

What bothers me is your assumption that a fat body is automatically a choice, or a punishment for behavior you deem unhealthy, when the reality is so very much more complicated than that. You cannot divine people’s health numbers by looking at their stomachs or their butts or any other parts. I can’t hold you solely responsible for promoting that view because it’s so pervasive. Toxic, but pervasive. (Cigarette butts (and other litter) are pervasive on the street where I live too, but that doesn’t mean I have to like them…)

Please reconsider whether the pride with which A&F’s Jeffries spouted his contempt for anyone not randomly blessed with his idea of beauty, really does anyone any good at all.

While i understand where you’re coming from i think you’re missing the greater picture. Yes, if big people dont want to be big they can work out…. but what about people with medical issues that can’t lose weight? …. people with thyroid issues, people, who like my in law, went through chemo and can’t lose the weight? … are they to be discriminated against too? … weight is only one of the ways this store discriminates and its not ok. We should not support them.

It is A&F’s right to manufacture clothing in whatever sizes it chooses. However, the problem was not said decision but the CEO’s comments about fat people in general and fat women in particular. If he had kept his mouth shut, no one would care about what sizes A&F’s clothes come in. It wasn’t an issue before, was it?

The other problem is your assertion that being fat is by choice and can be solved by getting up off of one’s ass and that wishing the man behind the McDonald’s counter would say you’re too fat for the #3 isn’t bashing.

It’s kind of hilarious, because A&F aren’t even talking about just fat people, really, they’re talking about *any* woman who is not very thin or short/small (I hear that their men’s sizes are more accommodating, no doubt because it’s okay for the “cool” men to be bigger, of course.) During the many years that I was a normal BMI, I still didn’t fit into their clothing; that would have taken getting down to an unhealthy weight for me. But hey, that was still *my choice*, right?

But I’m not even anywhere near there now. Is it still my choice? Sure, it’s always my choice not to starve myself and be happy and rejoice in my strength and health instead. For me, this is also known as being “fat”. This is where fat pride comes in. If you’re happy with your body, you could not care less about pathetic jerks like Jeffries and his ugly clothing. Jasmyne, I hope you get there because it’s hard work hating and fighting your body your whole life just because other people say you should. Yes, it’s incredibly awesome to be able to move and eat well, but that won’t necessarily make you thin, because not everybody is meant to have a low amount of adipose tissue naturally. Look into HAES. You can spend part of your life, the rest of it, being at peace with your body. Unless you’d rather spend the rest of your life defending the “cool” people’s bigotry and wishing you were like them. Because that’s a choice too.

@faby thank you, I have hypothyroidism and I’ve been skinny all of my life. The sudden weight gain for me was due to my thyroid, my TSH level was through the roof. I never got to the obsess or fat stage but I know people who have because of their thyroid. I work out to maintain my weight. A lot of prescribe medication can increase your appetite and that can be a problem for some people. Being overweight may be a choice for some but that is not the case for all overweight people.

I actually feel a bit sad for this author because her self loathing is obvious. Being fat/overweigh/obese aren’t necessarily an indicator of someone’s health and quite frankly even if a person is overweight and unhealthy its not anyone else’s business. People of all body sizes have the right to exist without being shamed. This author is within her rights to self flagellate about being fat and eating french fries and say how ‘good’ she is to have lost weight. I guess that’s what society expects of fat people.

Insulting people and heaping shame on them doesn’t make anybody healthier. It does, however, contribute to illness. It’s a vicious lie that refusing to make clothes for fat people will suddenly make us all healthy, because people don’t take care of what they hate. Mostly, it will motivate people to either despair or crash diet.

Okay people…. First of all – calm down! Here is the thing – that was in 2006! Companies change and grow and change their perspective. That was SEVEN years ago. Why all of the sudden people are freaking out about this? Insensitive? No one is saying its WRONG to be fat – you are reading the comments or supposed quotes as ‘being fat is bad’. The CEO did not say anything about weight or size, or body type. He mentioned attractive people – you are all making it about weight ALL ON YOUR OWN!

And the thong thing? Really? I started wearing a thong when I was like 12, its more comfortable – I didnt grow up and end up on a street corner or pole. Its a clothing retailer. They can believe or say or market to whom ever they want. You getting angry is just publicising it more. Stock went up 12%. Congradulations you are spreading the word that it is cool to shop at ANF.

Oh please! Fat people unite! Do they sell clothes for obese people at BCBG?

As a woman who’s struggled w/her own weight clearly Jas knows that being a fat ass ain’t a choice for EVERYBODY but for the large number of overweight americans, it likely IS. So if you can’t figure out how to put that fat ass pork chop down, get your fat ass to a track/gym and make healthier CHOICES for yourself, then consider yourself at fat ass for life.

Contrary to popular lore, there ain’t no healthiness in being overweight. Even if you don’t have diabetes, hypertension etc., you still have to deal w/the burden being fat takes on your body, joints/muscles.

There are obviously more dumbasses than fat asses. In my opinion it’s a matter of fact. First let me acknowledge that nobody has a law book that says people are only fat by choice. That’s totally incorrect! For more importantly it’s the way this topic was expressed that’s distasteful and prejudice. And for those who don’t realize how ignorant and dumb they appear not recognizing prejudice is pitiful!! Dumb black and pitiful to be exact. It was our forefathers that were more discriminated against not being able to drink from certain water faucets or sit on a bus or use a swimming pool in a hotel. Or even walk in front doors! Not to mention the highly distributed signs that said whites only and no blacks. That’s why we have Black history month black movies and black clubs. It’s all relative… Just take your uncle Tom head out of somebody else’s ass trying to pass judgment. Most people realize that.

I am sorry to say that you have got it all wrong, have you read Jeffries’ words?? He did not talk about health, but mere discriminations, about who is cool and who is not etc., that does not help a healthy lifestile, discrimination and bullying causes depression in kids and subsequent food disorders, let’s not pretend Jeffries is doing something healthy!!

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